Reviewer: Nina Valentine

A Ballarat National Theatre is presenting a mixed bag of one-act plays at the Courthouse Theatre from Saturday 4rh July.

The entree to the choice of three main courses is a masterly presentation by Ross Hall of Chekhov's The Evils of Tobacco. The monologue has little to do with smoking, but this actor certainly proved that "the dummy behaved himself properly!"

Then come the three short plays. Again Chekhov, this time The Bear, with Joanne Davis as the grieving (?) widow, Robert Kelty as the creditor and Barrie McCausland as the long suffering servant. They are excellently cast and well directed by Susan Pilbeam. This is Susan's first work for the BNT - we can only hope it will not be her last.

A change of pace with A Place in the Present, directed by Mary-Rose McLaren, relinquishing acting for her first direction. One act plays give so many people a chance to do something they've not tackled before, and therefore are to be commended. This is not an easy story for it takes place on a railway station platform, where a drunk (nicely played by Haydn Vincent) turns out to be the ex-husband of the woman waiting for her train. Sonia Kinnersley is suitably irritated and perplexed by this unexpected event, particularly as her fellow would-be passenger is a magician, whose talents are sorely tried. Mayhem results.

Finally we have Joy, written and directed by Ballarat's talented Peter Nethercote.
Peter uses tried and true National Theatre stalwarts in cameo roles, arrayed around his central character, Joy, a headmistress who is having much more than a bad hair day! Playing a role in Ballarat for the first time is Christine Holmes, an acquisition we can be very pleased about. Using a minimilist setting, Nethercote asks a great deal of his cast, and to their credit they live up to his expectations.
This is an enjoyable night of theatre playing from the 4th to the 11th of July at 8pm, with a matinee at 2pm on Sunday 5th.